January 06, 2014

It may not be snowing or icing over at American Airlines' hub airports on Monday but extreme cold temperatures have forced the airline to cancel over 750 flights.

"Fuel and glycol supplies are frozen – at [Chicago O'Hare] and other airports in the Midwest and Northeast. Additionally, our employees are only able to be out on the ramp for a few minutes at a time because wind chills are as low as 45 below zero at some airports," said American spokesman Matt Miller.

The airline said it will have minimal operations at its Chicago hub and at other cities in the Midwest and Northeast. More cancellations for its mainline and regional operations are expected as the bitter cold continues through Tuesday.

American said it is allowing customers affected by the weather to rebook their flights without penalty. The company's travel policy can be found here.

At Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, 41 departures have been canceled, according to aviation website FlightStats.com. The airport is also reporting 105 delays for departures because of weather in other parts of the country.

Comments

Jet fuel freezes at -40C - it never got colder than -25C in Chicago. It was physically impossible for fuel to freeze - sorry American - thats BS.

Now, balky fuel valves, fuel trucks that won't start, hoses that are not flexible, all that is possible, but frozen fuel is not. wind chill does not cause fuel to get any colder than the ambient temperature . . .